


Last Man Standing

by Faerlie_certain



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Bisexual Richard Gansey III, Gen, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:21:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27951467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faerlie_certain/pseuds/Faerlie_certain
Summary: Adam stares at Gansey.Gansey stares at Adam.“Uh.”“You could also just. Take that pillow and. Smother me with it.”
Relationships: Richard Gansey III/Adam Parrish
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	Last Man Standing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flitwickslittlebrotha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flitwickslittlebrotha/gifts).



Adam feels oddly like a thief. He hasn’t stolen anything that wasn’t his already. That wasn’t sitting unattended for too long to notice. 

He falls asleep next to Gansey’s hospital bed when the nurses don’t come to kick him out. He’s pretty sure that’s not legal, but. It’s been three nights in a row and no one’s come but his sister and even then, she wouldn’t even walk into the room with him. Ronan texts, drops by for a few fistfuls of tension, gulps air into his lungs just to choke it back out like he’s drowning, and then leaves just as quickly. Blue Sargent is with her family. Blue Sargent is home, sleeping in a warm bed, surrounded by warm relatives, existing in a soft cocoon of warm comfort and familial care and the knowledge sits like ash on Adam Parrish’s tongue. 

It should be her here, next to Gansey. It should be his family. It should be Ronan Lynch. It should be anyone. Literally fucking anyone. But nobody else can, so Adam’s all he’s got. Listening to his steady, unconscious heart beating away on a machine beside him. Tubes disappearing into orifices keeping him from --- whatever. Adam doesn’t really want to know. Hospitals are. Not great memories for him. Not great is, in fact, a rather egregious understatement of the vast and growing discomfort Adam feels to even be on this side of a hospital visit. 

So where the  _ fuck  _ are the Ganseys? 

Adam’s not unused to the concept of unfit parenting styles, but this is. Hell. Even  _ his _ mother would come to see him in the goddamn hospital. Even his father would. Would. Adam stops that line of thinking right where it leaves off. He pulls a thumb away from his mouth to see he’s bitten the nail bloody. 

Adam’s not sure what surprises him more: 

Blue’s seeming indifference to the state of someone she’s openly called her soulmate. His family’s absence in this matter entirely. Ronan’s inability to be the last man standing, here. 

Or Adam somehow volunteering to  _ be  _ the last man standing. 

Adam’s phone rings. He puts it to his ear without looking, expecting Ronan’s sharp inhalations and mumbled excuses. 

“What.” 

_ You work for us anymore, boy?  _

Adam’s eyes shudder closed. Boyd’s. Work. Life.  _ School.  _ He sighs. 

“I, uh. I’m dealing wi--- family emergency.” 

For a second, no one says anything. Adam’s vaguely aware the hand holding his phone might be trembling.

“Please.” 

His supervisor hangs up the phone. Adam tries not to worry. He tries not to overanalyze. Tries not to sit there and wonder how badly he’s fucked up this time. But if it comes down to it, he couldn’t have made any other choice. Nobody knows what they’ll do in a situation like this until it  _ happens.  _ He’s doing his fucking best. 

“Who was that?” 

All the air leaves Adam’s lungs when he looks over to see a bleary-eyed Richard Campbell Gansey III staring at him like he’s just woken after a night of sub-optimal sleep rather than three nights and most of the day after. 

Gansey coughs and Adam nearly trips over his chair in his haste to get to the water bottle on the table next to the hospital bed. 

“Drink first, answers later,” he says, his words all slurring together. Gansey lets himself be subjected to a few sips of water, laughing hoarsely between each. 

“I’ve never seen you like this. Someone really messed me up, huh?” 

Adam doesn’t look him in the eye. If Gansey were looking into a mirror, he’d be able to see a long gash and the discoloration from where a bullet cut into the left side of his head. 

“You have no fucking idea,  _ Richard. _ ” 

“So, listen,” Adam really, really does not want to, but Gansey grabs his hand and doesn’t let it go. “I, uh…” Adam tries to pull his hand away, to text Ronan. To press the call button. To fidget nervously. But Gansey holds onto it, squeezing a bit before he continues. “I had a dream.” 

A short burst of hysterical laughter escapes Adam’s lungs and it’s physically painful. “Yeah, I’m sure you did. You’ve been asleep for about half a week.” 

Gansey stares at him, totally unperturbed, and Adam sort of wants to hit something. How is he being so calm about this? Did the bullet do some real damage? Jesus, he needs to  _ call the nurse.  _

“Adam, you’ve been like. Reading to me. And talking to me. And just like… idunno, sitting with me.” 

Adam looks at Gansey. 

“You. You remember. All of that.” 

Gansey looks at Adam. He bites his lip, nods. Adam finds himself unable to look away from Gansey again. So he stands, fully intending to escape to somewhere far, far away and never return to this part of Virginia again. 

“I should, uh. I should tell Blue you’re awake. And Ronan. And, you know, a doctor.” 

“Adam, wait.” 

Adam waits. 

“Blue’s not. Here. Ronan’s not--- no one is here.” Gansey reaches for Adam’s hand again, not having had the strength to hold onto it when Adam stood abruptly. “Sit down for a sec.” 

Adam sits back down. 

When Gansey was unconscious, bleeding, with nobody at the hospital giving any of them a straight answer as to when or if he’d ever wake up--- 

Adam doesn’t remember everything that was said, but he remembers letting his mouth run a little loose. 

“Actually, I’m--- I don’t want to talk about my dream. It was, uh. Some other time. But. Hey. I just got shot in the head, I guess, so we can totally blame it on that if this goes south, right? So, what the hell. Wanna go on a date with me or something after I sleep for about 30 more hours?” 

Adam stares at Gansey. 

Gansey stares at Adam. 

“Uh.”

“You could also just. Take that pillow and. Smother me with it.” 

Adam loses himself in the steadily-growing terror in Gansey’s wide, tired eyes for ten, ludicrous, excruciating seconds before he’s laughing, nervous and loud in the otherwise completely silent corridor. Gansey turns the color of a tomato in the sun. Red threatening to become purple. But damn him, he doesn’t look away. 

  
“Oh, Gansey.  _ Gansey _ , Gansey Gansey...” Adam manages, breathless. “You know what, no. I think I just want to awkwardly sleep next to your hospital bed and tell you how angry I am that no one else in our lives is here right now and that your hands are nice and that I’ve probably had a crush on you for like, the whole fucking summer so,  _ yes, I want to go on a date with you, you idiot. _ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd


End file.
